RunItTw1ce

4:45 you said you would shove the river with T9? Are there are a lot of worse hands that are calling a shove? Its a 3BP IP PFC. BTN float bets 33% flop. 2/3 turn and checks back river. I thought this was a standard check back spot. Idk if Linus ever has 4x here or QT, but should have some QJ JT or JhXh some better 9x? Shoving 9x here for value seems kind of wild to me. Maybe 9x with a kicker?

Custom Ai Wizard link for exact bet size, pot size, and stack sizes in game. I never thought BvB would ever fold a flush, but only mandatory call AXs KXs+

Also Luke Johnson Idk the exact time stamp for this hand, but you mentioned wizard was calling J6s and your sim was 3 betting at some frequency, so you went with your PIO sim. In this custom Ai sim, wizard is 3 betting J6s on the flop about 30% of the time.

One last note JTo was close to a pure check back on the turn for this custom Ai, but J9o is barreling off, so it can't be too bad.

SB Cb 28% (1.21)
BB raises 111% (8.7)
SB calls.
Turn
BB cb 70% (15.33)
SB XC.
River
BB shoves 141% (73.72)
SB calls. 0EV.

I started watching him a couple weeks ago. He makes some very solid videos. A bit advanced for the public. Not super entertaining, but very educational.

I thought The Mental Game of Poker 2 would go well with your post. I just read this chapter today on self discipline. Where a lot of players think people either have it or they don't, but its more of a skill or muscle that is trained. In the client's story he talks about playing 32 hour sessions and continuing to grind even when he was tired and burned out until the fish had no more money. However, he learned being more professional and keeping a schedule is going to net him about 15% more money yearly than a regular who had bad habits of chasing losses, not sleeping properly, unhealthy eating, etc. A lot of the confidence in poker comes from the work you do off the table!

SoundSpeed Krzysztof Slaski I watched this video on donking 3BP IP PFC on the turn today. Goes over MDA, theory, bet size, and range construction. Could make for an interesting follow up video. He used 3BP OOP HJ vs CO as the PFC. What turns do we donk and how the flop cbet size influences the turn donking range / frequency.

Emty if opponent bet, since we can not bet the river for value, are we folding T6? We do have a blocker to 99. What's the worse hand we are calling a shove with?

*I'm really new to PLO formats. Please take my questions as coming from a beginner. I'm well studied in NL and some double board PLO bomb pots, but I have never studied PLO / PLO5.

21 min Emty mentioned it is too thin to bet the river for value in this hand. Doesn't this contradict your turn barrel? If you can only bluff with this hand, but when you make a hand you can't value bet? What's the worse hand we can value bet here if not T6? If opponent bet the river do we fold?

21:45 you mentioned you are surprised to see a XR. The river SPR is only going to be about 1, so can't we just XR all of our straights, sets, and flushes? Throw in some AhQx AhJx for bluffs?

Matt Marinelli

The bottom two tables are cut off where we can't see the stack sizes.

13:45 T#1 with A7o because its chip EV are you always jamming preflop 14.5bb from the CO? Where ICM its 2bb open and fold to a 3bet?

I think Alex Theologis did a good job of explaining the fundamental leaks hero has with wizard as a visual.

Step 1 I think hero should just write down all the ranges or make some of his own charts for RFI from each position. I would move down in stakes and just purchase wizard to drill each spot rather than playing. Spend 20 hours doing different drills is way more educational than firing off 100s of tourneys.

I miss the play and explains, but this was very educational. Thank you

Do you think leading adds more EV to your strategy compared to just heavy XR frequency?

Getting a coach to fix some mechanical things and do a database review will only take 2-3 hours max. The database review will give you plenty of homework to work and do on your own going forward. Maybe cost you $500 or so to get everything done. Do you have a fear of failure online? Like you don't think you can beat the game any more? I'm also a life time winner in all formats btw. But life time winner and post solver winner is completely different. It was free money back in the day. Now its more like a sport where you need to out work the other athletes to be a crusher. There are not enough fish around to just hit sets and get paid any more.

A Truthful conversation.

Maybe this video will help. I hope you have a rio subscription. I don't think private games are the way to go tbh. You need something that is flexible to your busy schedule. Allows you to play a couple hours whenever you want. A lot of CFPs suggest dropping down in stakes during this learning curve as well. What is wrong with playing 10NL blitz on ACR or 50NL blitz if you are just trying to learn rather than make money?

There is a Jarretman Podcast that talked about playing micro to low stakes and then 200z he said was tougher than $25/$50 live. He used online low stakes to learn to crush high stakes live.

I can't suggest how important getting a coach is even if its just for a couple of hours. It will likely change your mind about online poker. If you look at coaches here on RIO you have guys like PSEK who made $450k live last year. Gary Chapelle I forgot his annual income but passed 100k playing mostly 200NL and some 500NL. You are not going to make this amount in live private games. People will run out of money or kick you out before that happens.

16:30 If you had KcJc instead of Kc7c would you continue with the higher end straight draw?

22:30 Q95hh-8h-Kx if you had QxTh QxJh hand would you consider bluff raising the river 3 way? Maybe not as you mentioned you need a check back range that includes flushes.

This was great!

35min Q86ss Some times I play too scared on these boards where with my 2 pair or set I want to see a clean turn before piling money in. I saw a video by Qi Yang that talked about betting small on 754r and smaller on 754dd. I thought playing OOP XR would be similar to this. On wet boards we don't want to XR our value too often because there are a lot of bad runouts that favor IP. I think I'm taking it too far though. Even IP here with QQ 88 66 are only calling 2/3 of the time vs a XR instead of 3 betting.

Wizard screen shot showing Q8s / 86s / Q6s having 76-80% equity. How do we decide to fast play these hands vs call and evaluate?

21:00
KTTr I was surprised to see all pairs continue vs the XR for IP. The 33/22 has some clean boat outs and unblocks the BC-F range. I expected to see 55/44 in the XR range as well. Just unblockers to AQ AJ QJ Q9 etc. Then less of the straight draws as making a straight on a paired board will have some reverse implied odds. Also on the turn are people really continuing QQ JJ 88-55 vs a XR-B ? I expect our FE to be higher on the turn.

6:00
On A73r why do we check raise 95s 85s and not 98s?
1) it has to do with the barreling range on the turn being more low cards that we barrel.
2) it has to do with the folding range. BTN is folding 88 99 T9s 98s at some frequency either on the flop or close to pure on the turn. 98s has double blockers to the folding range.
3) 98s turns combo draw on Tx turn but it doesn't complete any straights to make IP more scared of our range and also improves the high card region of TT and AT. We are more likely to face some turn raises with T9s 98s in a XR-B line than we are with 95s/85s.

What content are you keeping up with? Do you mean like random Youtube videos / twitch streams / discords? If so, that's your problem right there haha.

I'll stop. I already quit discord about a year ago. There is a ton of YT content out there and also just keeping up with Rio videos here. Spend too much time studying and not enough time grinding. Going to switch over to grinding first, then studying after, so I can use most of my energy for making money as most of my blueprint isn't going to change much from the videos I watch. Most of the YT content I unsubscribed to start the year. I found myself going back down that rabbit hole though.

Context switching would occur if you have other things open and are constantly checking it. Ideally, you'd just have your music on in the background and not need to look at it.

Do you put your phone across the room or close social media while you play? What mechanical things are you doing to eliminate these distractions? In The Mental Game of Poker 2 book it briefly talks about why people feel the need to check social media instead of focusing on the task at hand. Usually there is some life imbalances where they are not getting enough social interaction. Having a day off or planning social events helps your level of focus on the other days of the week.

Beethoven's Nightmare by Dragonland

This feels hard to focus! I prefer something like this for drilling on wizard.

I spend hours carefully re-crafting everything I'm doing. But for the most part it's gradual, incremental improvement and I don't need a stopwatch or anything.

Some coaches like Luke Johnson recommend splitting your study days. Where he might only study on Mondays and the rest of the week is dedicated to grinding. I guess it helps balance out the energy levels as well. Not getting burned out before your session even starts through studying. Do you do anything like this?

Thanks IAmNeo for coming back! Also why RIO instead of a site like 2+2?

7:15 3B X-X-C feels like a huge win on KQQ-9-Q w/ KJs.

31:45 T#2 Any merit to donking B10 on the turn? MW flop where you stab on 852dd. Call a min raise then get a flush completing turn.

In the video we saw 2 players flat preflop with AA & KK in order to set up a back raise. Nice to see some creative spicy play and not just robotic play. Reminds me of live cash where someone is card dead for a while, so they don't 3bet because they think it will be obvious. Then they end up back raising.

4:30 You considered a donk CO vs BTN 3BP OOP PFC on J98hh. After XC33 on the flop you just checked the turn. Is the turn J98-Q not a card you want to donk on?

31:00 You get upset with yourself about this play where you limp called a 5bb iso preflop then XR the flop. The quality of the video makes it impossible to tell what your XR size was, then you folded to a 3bet. I don't really hate the fold. Seems like it can go either way where villain has JJ+ or some A4s type hands that 3bet. Not sure if they find 3bet bluffs here. What would the bluffs be?

Huge fan! I am one of the people who really wanted your journal to not be deleted. I always reference your MOP pod to give people motivation to work hard and not rely on experience and talent. Glad you're back!!!

Does context switching and getting fatigued occur when you have other things open such as youtube or social media?

Can you walk us through the first three hours of your day? Are you working out? Running errands? Taking care of the house?

I often burn the candle at both ends with poker from morning to night. Lack of discipline with trying to keep up with all the content. Do you set alarms to stop studying even if you haven't figured out the answer yet or do you go down the rabbit hole for 3-4 hours until you are satisfied with your study?

10:30 loose player limps, CO shoves 10bb, hero SB. What is the bottom of the calling range?

11:00 you open QJo as the chip leader in the CO. 2nd in chips is in the BB. Earlier in the video you mentioned you would open bigger 2.2x when the BB would cover you. I was wondering as the chip leader if we should open bigger as well when the guy 2nd in chips is in the BB, so we can force him to fold due to ICM pressure?

33:15 three handed. Any open limps on the button or only playing raise / fold?

44min BvB on the turn QJ7cc-5x board. IP is taking a lot of free cards with straight draws not to get blown off our equity. Then bluffs are coming from low AXs KXs hands being more polar with our bluffs so we realize our equity and have an easy decision vs a XR. Usually I would only use these bluffs if there are not a bunch of draws available, but I need to factor in SPR more often and be more polar with low SPR.

Even some AKo is folding here which is pretty surprising. Solver drawing to a 5 card hand with AQ AJ 99 but folding AK is mind boggling. Makes sense at deeper SPR. With a 1 SPR I'm shocked we are not more KX heavy here.

43:20 QTo on KK8cc-7x do you think most tourney spots are barreling these 2 overs with low SDV in a B25-B50 line? Solver used B75. I personally prefer B50 in a lot of these spots. B75 is nice when you have value because its more of a geo2 spot. Where B50 leaves a 1 SPR. On the river ace I like to triple on a "scare card" that makes more 8x 7x indifferent from bluff catching and give up on brick rivers.

36:40 I'm not sure I'm cut out for tourneys. I don't think I defend Q7o at any stack size with Q8o being my threshold usually. Looking at wizards range for 2.1bb open and big blind defense is mind blowing. I simply don't have the postflop skill set to defend this wide.

14:45 I am surprised to see IP playing block size. Much different than cash games where IP almost never bets less than 50%. I liked how you played JhTh this hand. Looks like a strong but non nut hand or potential bluff since you left chips behind. Looks like solver just likes playing X-B-B with entire range (16:10).

16:45 What does BB defense look like vs these 3x opens?

26:15 MP 2.6x open and CO flat. I'm a bit surprised to see SB folding KJs KTs QJs QTs JTs here. I thought these hands would wanna flat in the SB 34bb effective.

35:00 you jammed JTo which seems fine off 13bb. But I was wondering why we don't just raise 2bb here? previous hand AcJc off 12bb from Ep you chose to min raise saying you want a bit more action with that hand. I think I'm only playing 2bb open until I get down to around 7bb or so as my standard. It makes sense to jam some off suit hands. I'm playing soft live low stake tourneys $200 range.

Hello Douggyfr3sh just read your entire journal. Happy you are openly sharing everything a long the way. Being honest about your play, work, workouts, & habits can go a long way. I found there are a lot of life crushers here on rio, but most are just lurkers who don't post, but will occasionally get a DM when you share things as you did in your journal.

One of your first goals was to make $20,000 this year playing poker 10-12 hours a week and 5 hours or so of study. I think playing 4 tables at a time, regular tables on bovada, will get you to around 250 hands per hour. On the zone games you will get vastly more but you can only play 2 tables per stake at a time. ACR might be worth looking into where you can play 5 blitz tables at a time for the same stake. Both sites are going to be filled with bots and or collusion, but the games are still beatable. If you can make 10bb/100 with an avg stake of $100NL that is $25/hr? With zone the winrate will be closer to 5bb/100 but you will get 3x as many hands per hour. I just wanted to talk about your 20k goal, where at $20/hr you still have to play 1,000 hours a year. I think a more realistic goal would be $10,000 for the year based on playing about 10 hours a week.

You mentioned you are learning from some youtube content like Hungry Horse. Mostly his heuristics are geared towards 200bb+ play, which is not very common online. I watch all of his videos myself and they are extremely helpful. He will throw out some heuristics for 100bb play as well. It's mostly to fast play yourself as its easier to get the money in over 3 streets in a BBB line. Where 200bb you need to find a XR at some street or an overbet. For online do you watch any Runitonce coaches? In terms of beating 50NL - 200NL there are a lot of solid coaches out there that are crushers and put in volume. Henry Lister doesn't make videos any more, but he helped me a lot when I got started online. Mark Lamers and Gary Chapelle have been crushing 200NL - 500NL for many years now. Also why don't you purchase GTO wizard? You can still do all the node locking you want on it. I have drills set up where I can play 4 tables against the trainer with custom bet sizes that match my blue print. Great for warmups before your session.

Throughout your journal its hard to tell what skill level you have in poker. We only see the results, which means nothing over a small sample. I would recommend checking out demondoink's journal where he post about life and shares some of his biggest pots. Probably a great coach as he is a long time winner 8bb/100 I believe in the 500z games and has moved up in stakes to shot take 10KNL.

Did you ever email your boss to set a meeting about how you feeling about not being compensated for adding on more work to your under staffed team?

I work a ton of hours in a demanding career, and then try to compete in a difficult game at night, often drained of energy before the session even starts. I do have a great pre-session routine and do workouts/cold plunge etc- but that cannot make up for being over-tired, burnt out, etc.

This part I have suffered from for years. I play "full time" for a living but I haven't been able to get out of this routine. Going to the gym has been inconsistent, studying has been consistent but not efficient, and then as you mentioned there is a ton of content out there that is frankly very whelming to try and keep up with. There is so much advice out there that tells you to workout in the mornings for the best results as you are drained from carbs and will burn more fat. Have a pre session warm up and study before your session. I will end up spending 3-4hrs a day studying either doing wizard drills, watching rio videos, youtube videos from Hungry Horse, carrot corner, chai poker, Luke Johnson, benabadbeat, Davidkay, Gary blackwood, and even here on RIo its just hard to keep up with all the content. By the time you try and keep up on everything, even at a faster speed your day has come and gone. Instead of playing poker at 5pm now its 9pm and the games suck after midnight. So I put "full time" in quotes because I have been spending way too much time studying. A piece of advice I can offer to avoid making the same mistakes I have is focus on runitonce videos since you are playing online. Pick one or two coaches and stick to their videos. Watching Luke Johnson vs Gary Chapelle for instance is night & day. Where Luke has a highly exploitable strategy geared for higher stakes and Gary has more of a blue print that works for 1kNL and below consistently without taking massive swings. Both make excellent videos but trying to apply both strategies will just confuse the hell out of you and you end up making more mistakes.

As Marc Goone says, "You don't have to do anything." There is a video where he opens QQ from EP and gets 3bet by a tight player and ends up just folding. As you mentioned you don't want to play GTO style. I was stuck in this GTO theory mindset for many years. Seeing Marc fold QQ preflop was eye opening for me. Knowing I was "allowed" to do things like this really helped me come out of a small hole I was digging at the time.

You already hired a mental game coach. I would look into hiring a coach for strategy. Going over your database and doing a couple of sessions. Maybe spend like $1,000 on 4-5 sessions with a coach can really scale your poker career instead of trying to figure it out for yourself. I only play live these days, but if you are willing to share some hands I would be more than happy to provide some free feed back. Recent guy from Canada I helped was breaking even over 150k or so hands. After going over his database and pointing out some obviously leaks the next 20k hands he was winning 19bb/100 at 50NL on stars. Having a fresh set of eyes can really help.

I think I have written too much, so I'll stop here. I tend to go on rants that people don't want to read. Looking forward to your next update.

Great video Brian Hastings Loved the HRC mixed in. Looking forward to watching the rest of this series.

31:20 also a cool tip to continue with lower PP that matches the suits on the board. 1) because on a turn flush draw our EV goes lower. 2) We are more less likely to have a set on a flush completing runout.

36:15
Why is QJc calling and QsJs folding? I was thinking QsJs blocks KsQs KsJs and has bdfd equity.